[ale] Ale subscribers

[Edward Holcroft]

I hear you Aaron, I really do. And I'm all for a bit of anarchy on the
list: it's the nature of the beast. I also strongly agree  with you that
any meta-narrative is decidedly on-topic.

However ...

Moderation in all things implies occasionally going to extremes of control
that I too feel uncomfortable with and I applaud Jim for the even tempered
way he's handling things. And by "things" I mean the mind-numbing,
clueless, filibustering by one openly anti-FOSS evangelist who seems to
have taken it upon himself to commandeer this soon-to-be-a-list-of-one.

If I wanted to hear this kind of incessant, obtuse drivel, I'd watch
C-Span. I choose my lists very carefully and I was overjoyed when I
discovered ALE, re-discovering old online colleagues from the most unlikely
elements of my past. Even though it was a relatively quiet list, it was
high quality tech talk with the occasional political spat: just my type of
list. It's really disappointing to be considering packing it in due to one
miscreant that seemingly refuses to behave civilly despite the
incrementally direct and ever-ruder responses that he elicits.  It has
single-handedly changed the character of this list for the worse.

This list continues to be commandeered, except it's now by ostensibly
on-topic drivel rather than OT drivel.  I can handle ignorance because it
can be overcome with education, as continuously attempted by members here.
But the apparently willful, contemptuous delight taken in delivering
red-herrings, trolls and blatant misinformation has become as infuriating
to me as what it is mind-boggling.

It's been many years since I've witnessed such a remarkably disciplined and
effective exercise in sowing mayhem and destruction on a list by one single
person. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.

The list was split in two to accommodate this nonsense. Where does it go
from here? ALE is getting drawn and quartered by a single, delusional,
overbearingly disruptive element that seems to have upped the ante in the
"Now I'll show you" stakes. Quite unlike the bare-knuckles list-fights I've
seen before that have actually been enjoyable to witness with informed yet
opposing perspectives sparring, this stuff we now see is just circular,
weak and destructive.

Unchecked, I see it killing this list.

And that my opinion about that.

Ed

Edward Holcroft | Madsen Kneppers & Associates Inc. |
3020 Holcomb Bridge Rd. NW | Norcross, GA | 30071 |
O (770) 446-9606 | M (678) 587-8649

-- 
MADSEN, KNEPPERS & ASSOCIATES USA, MKA Canada Inc. WARNING/CONFIDENTIALITY 
NOTICE: This message may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not 
the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately then delete it 
- you should not copy or use it for any purpose or disclose its content to 
any other person. Internet communications are not secure. You should scan 
this message and any attachments for viruses. Any unauthorized use or 
interception of this e-mail is illegal.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20131015/6156294f/attachment.html>